Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Baha'is of Egypt Continue Their "Roller Coaster Ride"

The state of uncertainty and confusion continues for the Baha'is of Egypt, just like a "roller coaster ride," when on a given day they might become elated at the news of progress and vindication, and on another they are brought down very rapidly by set-backs and regress.

A case in point is this most recent important piece of news that was announced yesterday in Cairo's Al-Dostoor newspaper (attached), which affirmed that Egypt's Judicial State Council has just upheld the 29 January 2008 court verdict, permitting the Baha'is to obtain identification documents with dashes "--" inserted in the religion section of these documents. The 29 January verdict was previously challenged by an Islamist lawyer who, in an attempt to stall the ruling on procedural excuses, attacked the judge and questioned his competence. This stalling tactic was discussed before in this post.

In addition to that, the 29 January ruling had also faced another legal challenge by another lawyer. This second challenge was indeed an appeal of the ruling itself, intended to penetrate its core and reverse it altogether. This appeal was filed shortly after the 29 January verdict by another Islamist lawyer, named Abd El-Mageed El-Aanany. As a result of that appeal, the case was referred to the judicial State Council, which is a panel of judges at the highest level of the State, charged with acting on such judicial matters and appeals.

This council rejected the appeal by El-Aanany and upheld the administrative court's ruling to allow the Baha'is obtain identification documents. In its decision, the Council affirmed that the only authority that has interest in this case is the Ministry of Interior, not this lawyer or any others for that matter.

Since the defendants in these cases, i.e. the Ministry of Interior, its Minister, General Habib El-Adly, as well as the head of the civil [personal] affairs authority had not appealed the verdict during the alloted time period, that in itself led to the enforcement of the verdict. Thus the independent appeal by this lawyer was rejected by the State Council.

This is a very significant ruling that affirms that the administrative court verdict must stand and cannot be challenged, implying that the Baha'is of Egypt can now obtain ID cards and birth certificates as ruled by the court.

On the other hand, a day after this announcement, another newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm (attached) published an article that reported on cases when Baha'i students were refused admission to schools simply because of their religion.

When the parents of these students went to the schools to enroll their children, they were told by the schools' administrators that they were instructed to accept students only if their religion was stated as "Muslim" or "Christian," and that they will not accept any students with dashes "--" entered in the religion section of their birth certificates.

When the parents went to the Ministry of Education to complain, they were given the usual "run around" by placing the blame on other agencies, such as the Ministry of Interior. Of interest, one of these schools is a French private school and the other is a British private school--both report directly to the Egyptian Ministry of Education.

According to these new developments, it is clear that the "right hand does not know what the left hand is doing." These developments betray a state of chaos, with some individuals, who think that they are in "authority," are making their own arbitrary decisions without evidence of any sort of accountability. Those responsible for the citizens of Egypt must step-up and stop this state of madness and anarchy. They are under the absolute obligation to enforce the laws.

6 comments:

  1. I find it quite interesting how these people can sleep at night when they arbitrarily deny the right of citizens of Egypt [who do not necessarily belong to the big 3 as they put it]their due process and their rights as human Beings...

    Furthermore, I would wager a months salary [yes I know Bahá'u'lláh forbids gambling but this is a sure thing]these same people would scream bloody murder if they were treated that same way in the USA as they treat Baha’i’s in Egypt...

    There are people who do not realize what is happening on the other side of the planet but who are just focused day to day life here in the USA...

    Sometime as Americans we really do not realize how good we have it here in the USA...


    PS keep fighting the good fight Bilo

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  2. برأيي هذا كله خداع ومماطلة فقط حتى ييأس البهائيون فى مصر ويرضخوا لماتريده وزارة الداخلية وهو ارغامهم على كتابة (مسلم او مسيحي) فقط

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  3. Invisible says: "in my opinion all this is just deception, and stalling until the Baha'is of Egypt become so downtrodden and submit to any of the wishes of the Ministry of Interior to the end of being forced to enter only 'Muslim or Christian'."

    Thank you for this sober comment. Sometimes reality hurts!

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  4. Terry,
    Unfortunately they do sleep well at night--simply because they don't care!

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  5. Thank you Bilo for your Great Translation, you are right (reality hurts!)
    It is really hurt to feel that: I’m not welcome to leave in my country! As the others!
    It is really hurt to feel that: My country is kicking me away!(force me to leave it)

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  6. Invisible,
    Thank you for always speaking from your heart. May you find peace.

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